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I've been trying out various masking tapes in order to try and paint some straight lines, however, no matter what I try paint "seeps" under the edges of the tape and causes one hell of a mess on the model. My freehanding skills are OK - I can get a reasonably straight line but I don't want reasonably, I want straight

I'm not using particularly watery paint and I've tried a couple of different masking tapes, and electrical tape (I thought the paint might be soaking through the masking tape or something, but the results using this tape were worse than with regular masking tape). I stick the tape down very firmly.

Any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong? Anything you have tried which works?

Thanks in advance.

Masking tape should really be working, perhaps a different type of masking tape. As for the electrical tape, no it's kind of a bad idea.

I just use plain old ordinary masking tape and it works just fine, maybe you're applying too much tape of just need to get some better stuff.

An obvious suggestion is to take the tape off after it has dried rather than before and to not use too much paint but a few light coats.

For successful masking:

1) Use Tamiya tape for the mask edges. Nothing else is as good. Use paper for the rest of the mask, attached with cheaper tape.
2) Ensure the tape edge is flat against your 'sharp edge'.
3) If painting by hand, you want to stroke AWAY from the edge of the tape, with a pretty 'dry' application (not much paint on the brush - drybrushing, basically. Stroking towards the edge will lift it and push paint under.
4) If using an airbrush (better) again you want your application to be dry (runs are bad!) and you want to spray from the masked side of the tape, as spraying towards the masked edge will force paint under it, giving a fuzzy edge.

For most 'line' purposes (on anything smaller than a land raider really), it's quicker to use a flexible ruler (I use plasticard strips) to pencil on the lines and hand paint them.

I once used scotch and it worked perfect

Trust me. Tamiya is king for it. Scotch / 3m have some reasonable low-tack stuff that's alright on flat surfaces. Tamiya stuff is waxy and conforms to curves and around surface details like raised panels very well with smoothed with a toothpick. Also cuts cleanly with a (Very) sharp knife - no fibres.

One your tape is down repaint the edge with your base color... this will seal the edge and any paint that bleeds will be your base color and not mater anyway.. this is how pros paint walls and such and and it works great!

drglnc wrote:One your tape is down repaint the edge with your base color... this will seal the edge and any paint that bleeds will be your base color and not mater anyway.. this is how pros paint walls and such and and it works great!

That's actually quite a good idea

And thank you to the others - some good suggestions which I should really have thought of [doh!]

drglnc wrote:One your tape is down repaint the edge with your base color... this will seal the edge and any paint that bleeds will be your base color and not mater anyway.. this is how pros paint walls and such and and it works great!

Learned this on HGTV only AFTER I painted stripes in nursery and they came out like sh!t. Pro-tip for sure.

electrical tape works wonders for me.masking tape doesnt really work as good.

Well I think how you paint the line is contingent on where the line is...what I mean is that a straight line is easier to paint if it is obscured by something rather than right out in the open. I would still do masking tape though, I have found thats the best way to do it. I take my fingernail and realy press dow the edge of the tape. Then I always apint away from the masking tape....if you paint towards it, you are more likely to leak under the tape....also, use less paint, if you have to go over it 3-5 times, its much better than 1 time with leaks. Hope this helps you

Element206 wrote:Well I think how you paint the line is contingent on where the line is...what I mean is that a straight line is easier to paint if it is obscured by something rather than right out in the open. I would still do masking tape though, I have found thats the best way to do it. I take my fingernail and realy press dow the edge of the tape. Then I always apint away from the masking tape....if you paint towards it, you are more likely to leak under the tape....also, use less paint, if you have to go over it 3-5 times, its much better than 1 time with leaks. Hope this helps you

This. I've used this technique a lot.

Element206 wrote:I take my fingernail and realy press dow the edge of the tape.

During my first few tries with Tamiya paint I thought it didn't work at all because I wasn't doing this. Once I figured that part out I didn't have much trouble.

drglnc wrote:One your tape is down repaint the edge with your base color... this will seal the edge and any paint that bleeds will be your base color and not mater anyway.. this is how pros paint walls and such and and it works great!

This!

Also, if you can manage it, make sure you paint your colors from light to dark. This will help with coverage and opacity.

Aqua wrote:I once used scotch and it worked perfect

I suppose drinking enough would steady your hand ...